This is adorable and smart

This is a one-off short, and it doesn't rise beyond fluff, but it rises about as high as fluff can get, and even if that's not your thing, I think you might like this.

There are zero tropes in it, which is so refreshing. There is no "but we're both guys!" nonsense - it's just a straightforward romance, and it feels like one between two normal guys - not two Victorian 12 year olds, not a plaster-cast seme and uke, just two guys.

The dialogue is really clever and cute, and the guys are confident and witty, but not without youthful insecurity at the right couple of moments.

The main character, Rossi, is gorgeous - it's so nice to see a darker actor cast and not caked with makeup to whiten him. He's also naturally sexy and charismatic, although it's hard not to be when you look like that. The other guy does a great job too.

Watch it! The worst that can happen is you'll lose 17 minutes.

Leia Mais

Not awful, but a disappointment.

On the positive side, the cast is really good, especially the side characters, but Prem is surprising at times and can be really affecting. I guess it's not really surprising given how much presence he had in My Only 12%. Tae Weerapat is both adorable and sexy as the bumbling Bee, Yacht and O are a great pairing, and I even like Manow's romance.

But there are two central issues. The main one is that they've taken a side couple that had 20 minutes total screentime in a previous series and stretched it out to twelve episodes, and for that to work, you have to add plot and character elements to the central pair, or you end up with a dull, repetitive, boring mess. How many times do we have to watch the flashback of Team's friend drowning? For that matter, do we need two flashbacks of every scene? If it's about something that happened at least an episode ago, fine - but sometimes it's the previous scene. If the actors can't convey to us what they're feeling about the previous scene without a flashback, you either need better actors or to trust the actors you have (it's the latter in this case).

And this problem intensifies the other one: Win & Team's relationship is icky. They don't interact as boyfriends, they interact as parent and child. Team is infantilized to the point that it's hard to see him as a man, or even an older boy - he's a small child, who needs protection from everything and constant guidance from his "dad". A power imbalance in a relationship is fine, but this is way too extreme, and not sexy, it's just creepy. The power imbalance is hot when it's physical/sexual. When it's emotional to this degree, it's disturbing.

And as if Team isn't infantilized enough, he actually sleeps between his parents in their bed. I half-expected him to breast-feed, especially as there had been a lot of cow/calf comparisons in their scenes.

I come away from it feeling like Team needs serious psychiatric help. He has two kind and loving parents, but still seeks a parental figure in a lover - he behaves like a sexually abused child. His dad seems sweet, but I'm keeping my eye on him.

There's a scene (which was one of the best in the series) where Team and the mother of his dead friend are processing their grief at a grave, and Prem plays this perfectly, showing just the right amount of grief - tears without wailing, like an adult. But then this is destroyed by him calling Win for help, wailing like a child, and he sits in the rain at a gravesite for TWO HOURS waiting for Win to come rescue him, when his actual parents are a few blocks away. This is supposed to be romantic, but it makes my skin crawl. His friend died over ten years ago when he was 8. Come on. You can still feel grief and guilt, but if you're that incapacitated you need mental health treatment.

The end result is that I end up hitting the +10 seconds button repeatedly through their scenes (you only need one second in ten to grasp it all. Actually you need 0 seconds in ten because all their scenes are the same) to get to the other much more interesting relationships.

This series is a real disappointment - I remember how much I liked them and what a refreshing respite they were in Cry Babies and Their Talking Mannequins (Sorry. I was that one guy who didn't like UWMA.)

A highlight for me was Tul & Wan, who for me stole every scene they were in - both of them were able to create fully realized and consistent characters with very little screentime, and their conclusion, which was quite sudden, worked. Because we'd seen Wan's desperate loneliness and frustration & repression throughout the series, when Tul came on to him, you could see his natural defenses try to fall into place, until a lifetime of pent-up need blasted them like the walls of Jericho. He still did the planking-sex, but at least there was some real heat between them.

Minor points: It was nice to see Fluke's hair non-mutilated by whatever sadist was styling it in Sunshine Night. Someone spiked Santa's Refreshing Tea Drink with cocaine - but it worked and I enjoyed him. Art is so beautiful it hurts to look at him and it's a crime only Aam uses him as a leading man. I love that Tae has a "dad bod" instead of the usual seme's chisled abs and pecs - he's not pefect but very sexy. Boun's hair isn't long enough to tie up and I don't like it. He looks so good when it's down.

Why do Thais allow anyone anywhere near a swimming pool? We already know water in Thailand is deadly since your chances of getting a debilitating fever if rain touches you is 100%. Your chances of drowning are 90%. That's one of the reasons why Team's past didn't really move me. If you drown within 30 seconds of entering a pool, maybe you're not supposed to live.

Leia Mais

So disappointing.

This series started off reasonably well. It was clear from the start it was't going to be a masterpiece, but it was entertaining. But it quickly bogged down into a really negative and unpleasant mess.

Ahtip and Poon have the usual enemies-to-lovers banter and conflict at first, but then they descend into moderately psycho jealousy, misunderstanding, and lashing out to hurt each other constantly. It's not fun, and there's no chemistry between them to compensate - and even if there were there's no opportunity to see it because they're always in a fight, and not the "you didn't put the toilet seat down" type of fight - it's the "you are a controlling psycho" and "you constantly quit your job and break up with me" type of fighting.

There are no less than four villains. 1. The woman who is after Ahtip, who has more screen time than either lead, and she's awful - it's so unpleasant. 2. The handsome chef from a rival restaurant. 3. Teng's weird boyfriend and 4. The OTT evil landlady. Do we need all this? Especially with two surly and unpleasant leads, and two surly and unpleasant secondary couple characters, there is just nothing bright and fun about this series. With the secondary couple, one is in an unhappy LTR but delibrately leads someone on, and that someone is pursuing someone he knows is taken and all three make themselves (and the audience) miserable. TBH, I've never gotten the appeal of BankBonus, and I'd be surprised if you do after this.

Ahtip's friend Tewit is charming, but it's hard to think much of him as he's obsessed with Amy, who is a horrible, selfish snob.

On top of that, the writer appears not to have any experience with day-to-day life, as really basic details are wrong and take you out of the story. A hotel restaurant has nobody but a head chef to clean the kitchen and nobody is ordering ingredients. Except the head chef. Landlords can cancel leases with no notice and kick out tenants, and Ahtip is such a terrible, terrible boss that there's no chance he could have achieved any success. Etc.

Even the cutesy ending fell flat - all these people were practically trying murder each other the whole series, and now they're all best friends. Amy's redemption arc was to stomp all over everyone and then with no effort or reason ends up with the richest and best-looking guy in sight. Even after he had a drunken gay orgy with half the cast, which is weird since Poon won't let Ahtip even kiss him (until he gives him a hugely expensive gift. Nice messaging there).

It feels like punishment to watch this - it's entirely unpleasant with no romance or couple chemisty to keep you going. Honestly, I'd rather watch 45 minutes of people falling into accidental kisses than watch this.

I can't recommend this at all - there are lots of bad BLs, some of which are fun. This is just joyless and dreary. I had really looked forward to this because I love Peter - maybe someday he'll be in something good.

Leia Mais

A sweet slice of life

This is a really special 2-part short film that has a much more realistic feel to it than we're used to, yet remains in the BL genre.

Nobody is rich, the mother looks like a real person, and the setting is really beautiful without relying on the usual wealth and glamour - the director uses the natural setting to its best advantage.

The pacing is really good, managing friends to lovers in such a short span without feeling rushed or unnatural. The relationship is fluffy without being saccharine, and the chemistry between the two leads develops and feels real. The script is good, and a character's description of what it feels like to want someone is age appropriate and avoids the silly cliches like a kiss on the cheek is something shocking - these two want to touch each other, and the confused character is just the right amount of hesitant. Realistic dramatic tensions are not given overblown weight, and resolve in a natural way - it's refreshing.

The acting is superb - Mon has always been good, but Oak is really good in this and seems to improve with every project. And again, Mon performs the main theme.

I will certainly watch this again, and I'm looking forward to the next project.

Leia Mais

Horrendous, nauseating, and yet still boring as f.

That was awful. I'll start with the positives:

- Mos is supernaturally attractive. Every bit of him is stunning - hot body, porcelain skin, handsome face, those eyes, sexy voice, all of him.

End of positives.

This feels like it was written by a very sheltered 13-year old girl who inserted herself into the story as Bank's character. I'm not sure how else to describe his total lack of agency and relentlessly female wardrobe. You might think he has agency, but think about it - he's just a plot device, not a person. Even the one ability he has, designing jewelry (and the necklace is hideous), only exists when it's needed to move the "plot" "forward", and it's usually inspired by the supernatural elements of the story that are totally pointless and have no effect on anything.

I feel zero chemistry between Mos and Bank except insofar as Mos is so hot that he has some with anything that's in the same room with him. Partly because Bank's character is so vacuous and unrealized that there's nothing to be attracted to. Think about it. Describe his character: he... uh,... well,... he dresses like a girl. And wears so much makeup that if he actually were a girl, he'd look like a sex worker. That's really it. Oh wait, he faints a lot. A LOT.

This was the worst example of the worst kind of uke, who is incapable of surviving an average day without a seme to save him from drowning in 1 inch of water (this actually happens). Lin wants to use lovey-dovey nickhames, so he decides to call Sun "Dad". Not "daddy", which is at least an accepted slang term for an older (and generally wealthy) man, but "dad", which is only ever used in reference to your biological father (or occassionally a father-in-law) - is it possible for something to be more cringe? It's the ultimate infantilization.

The vaunted NC-17 scenes are so bad it's unintentionally funny. You get to see Mos's ass in the paint scene, so there is that, but that they didn't take off their high-fashion clothing first took me right out of the story. You could feed an entire village in Bangladesh for a year with what those outfits cost (in story). There's a BJ scene with slurping sound so loud that it would disturb Japanese people at a ramen bar. I guess Sun must have a micropenis, because otherwise there shouldn't be enough room in Lin's mouth to slurp anything.

One of the secondary couples has bird sex in a toilet stall while one of their fathers is watching while bent over backwards in a disturbing pose.

The only couple that's vaguely engaging also goes full uke-seme, the absence of which dynamic was what actually made them appealing - Yo behaved like a man, until he had a boyfriend, when he reverted to acting like a very sheltered 13-year old girl.

The production seems to think that loud = funny. All you need to do is have your characters scream their lines, and it's all very ha. (Or I guess it's "all very 5" for our Thai viewers.)

But worst of all, this was just dull. It wasn't fun to hate-watch, like Unforgotten Night - it just made me cringe almost continuously - and thank God for the +10 seconds button on iQiyi.

I can't recommend this - the only thing in it with appeal is Mos, and you can get anything you want of him and more on his instagram.

Leia Mais

One of the best Korean BLs for sure.

I'll start with negatives to end positively.

First of all, it's time for Korea to break the love scene barrier. To me, a BL doesn't always need one, and in some cases it would ruin it. It really depends on the characters, and for these, I don't think nothing happening is credible. Sang Woo's attraction to Jae Young had a strong sexual component, and Jae Young clearly isn't the type to hold back on getting physical. There didn't need to be a scene with candles and blaring ballad - something like the way Sang Woo throws Jae Young down on the couch in the final scene but going slightly further would have sufficed.

Also, we really need to retire the triple-take shot for whenever anything important happens - it's mildly ridiculous and drains all the emotion out of the scene. We also need to retire the extremely wide-eyed reaction by whomever is being kissed. In a manga it works because it's capturing surprise. In live action, it's weird and creepy, and sometimes makes the kiss feel non-consensual (although not in this case).

So for me, this is marred a bit by too much BL convention and avoidance of physical love.

But the chemistry between these two was amazing. They certainly did hugs right - full body contact instead of maintaining a foot between them, and the sheer joy they expressed when they did this. Both actors are very capable - I think the Sang Woo role is more difficult, but Jae Young could have come off as a stalkery with a lesser actor. It doesn't hurt that he looks like that, of course. And Park Seo Ham's boyfriendy affectionate kisses were lovely, and the enormous size differential between the two was adorable - the way Sang Woo had to stand on his tippy toes to kiss Jae Woo.

The odd-couple plot worked very well - and one thing that I think is superior about Korean BLs in general is that there is never a useless uke - Sang Woo is every bit as tough and capable (and moreso) than Jae Young.

The humor is really funny, like when Sang Woo is researching deviant desires and hormone imbalances because he doesn't understand why he's so hot for Jae Young.

While I think the series held back too much to put this in the highest category, it's still one of the best Korean BLs, and excellent by any standard. It's largely forgettable, but very pleasant and something you can go back to in the future when you need a pick-me-up.

Story: 9 - While not ground-breaking or original, it was coherent and directed, avoiding the silly manufactured drama and miscommunication that mars so many BLs.

Acting: 9 - Both leads were excellent, generated a lot of chemistry, and didn't shy away from physical affection. Both inhabited their characters and made them relatable and believable.

Music: 7 - Nothing special, but never distracting, which is a good thing in my book.

Rewatch Value: 8 - I would definitely rewatch this - in fact I'm fairly sure I will if it's put out in movie version.

Overall: 9 - While it didn't offer much new, it was superlative at being what it was - a fluffy romance with interesting and likeable characters.

Leia Mais

Fluffy but shallow, has a lot of cute moments

This series got off to a strong start, with an age difference plot where a 17-year old (almost 18) aggressively pursues a man 10 years older. At first it's charming and fun, as Akira, the 27-ish owner of a local laundramat, is a bit scandalized that a high school kid is after him. The dialog and interplay between Akira's discomfort with the situation and Shin's cocky confidence that he was going to get his man was entertaining and cute.

But instead of dwelling more on what I would think would be the central conflict (the age difference), the plot devolves into an endless loop of both characters drawing back from each other - Akira because he's afraid that if Shin spends so much time with him his schoolwork will suffer and he won't get into a good school, and Shin because he doesn't want Akira to blame himself if Shin can't get into a good school.

The thing is, it's not zero-sum. Being with someone you love is energizing and their support can help you get through difficulty, so it just feels like the story is just forcing the characters into a holding pattern until Shin is 18 and graduated.

In addition, Akira has been harboring an old crush on his high school teacher, Sakuma, who is an interesting character - a bit hapless but mature and a real gentleman, an ably acted. The storyline was too long and dragged-out, however, like much of this series.

The other problem for me is that Akira is so immature and devoid of any impulse toward self-examination that there is no character progression - just a passive 2D character that things happen to.

The series really has nothing to say and follows a fairly conventional course, which is a shame given it's "forbidden relationship" elements. It's a fluff piece, with a lot of cute moments, but by the end the characters have been running in circles so long that I stopped caring what happened to them.

The ending is quite lovely and doesn't follow the usual fomula, which made it a delight because I wasn't correctly anticipating every line of dialog like I usually can in series like this.

If you like cute and fluffy, you may enjoy this. I don't mind recommending it - but you may want to give in to the urge to fast-forward though tiresome parts - you won't miss anything and it may make the show more enjoyable for you.

This would have benefitted from being about a third shorter - then the thin plot would have marched foward without repeating the same pattersn over and over, and the ending would be more anticipated.

Leia Mais

Big Disappointment

I read reviews of shows because I only have so much time, and I can't watch everything. I'd seen the hype over this show, and I was looking forward to it - but looking at other people's reviews here and having actually watched the show, I'm completely flummoxed. My only explanation is that many fans have read the novel and have carried their appreciation over to the series where their imaginations can fill the enormous gaps in the narrative.

This show is jaw-droppingly unoriginal, with every BL trope you can imagine - in fact all the characters are engineering, medical and music students, because nobody is allowed to study anything else in a BL. The tired and untrue-to-life seme/uke dynamic is in full force, there's a tiresome fujoshi, and there are no countervailing positives, at least not in the main pair. Substituting warm milk for pink milk is not originality, it's almost laughable cribbing. And the evil gf is apparenly on the way.

The premise of the show is that Solo's mother has died and so he's lost his smile - but did he also need to lose his entire emotional range? And shouldn't Gui have a contrasting personality? He's equally dour and unsmiling.

The problem is the lack of acting skill in the main pair, and this is underlined with force by the secondary pairing, where Phu is equally unsmiling - but played by a talented actor, he is with virtually no dialog and only a handful of scenes able to convey his character's loneliness, pain, and repressed longing. We get nothing from Solo except his creepily expressionless face and his dead eyes. Losing your smile doesn't mean losing all facial expression.

If PhuKao were the main pair, this would be a really compelling series - the two actors playing these characters are really impressive, and their characters are interestingly drawn, and I can't predict every word they'll say and action they'll take like I can for the main pair. Kao has to work to chip away at Phu's walls, and you can see it slowly working, which is wonderful and beautiful. Kao manages to make his whiney and annoying character charming and endearing, and conveys a greater depth than the surface characteristics of his character suggest. He's cute as f@#$, too.

But I don't see any motivation for the relationship between Solo and Gui. What does Gui see in him? They have no shared experiences, they don't know each other, Solo just stares at him with his creepy blank eyes, and occassionally does something really frighteningly aggressive, like when he backs him into a corner at the flower shop. If you'd seen desire in his eyes, it would have been hot - but instead you (and Gui) had to wonder if he was about to commit murder. For that matter, what does Solo see in Gui? I'll admit he's cute, but that's all there is. So is this a purely physical attraction? One doesn't normally fall in love with someone cute but dull because he boiled milk for you.

I think another problem may be that losing your smile works better in a verbal medium than it does in a visual one, where you get a sort of uncanny valley effect that makes Solo look Not Quite Right.

In Episode 8, there's a character played by an experienced actress that's ill and so also quiet and understated, with only a few lines of dialog, but the actress gives such a powerhouse performance that I was in tears all the way through the episode, which underscores how acting ability is so utterly important and so utterly ignored by Thai BL, at least for the main roles (with the hugely notable exception of I Told Sunset About You and mostly for 1,000 Stars). If Solo had been played by someone with 25% of her ability, this would have been a truly memorable series.

The positives of the show are compelling side characters (except the fujoshi), including one of the best pairings I've seen in PhuKao, and the music is way better than your average Thai BL.

EDIT: Also, if you're going to hire an actor to play another character's father, you should really consider hiring someone more than 3 years older (Solo actor is 27, his father is 30). The little grey streaks of hair dye and glasses aren't fooling anyone. I'm sure the reason is because it's strongly implied he's the lover of a much younger character and they wanted to make it less creepy. But it makes me crack up every time they show him. I will say that he's just as dull and expressionless as his son, so that helps make it believable.

EDIT: The acting issue may largely be the directing because Nut Supanut is amazing in Something In My Room.

Leia Mais

Good acting, but there's no point - just Earth crying-porn.

This is a little like a dish that has only the best ingredients, but then is overcooked and not quite what you were hoping for.

The plot is really repetitive, with Eiw being hurt and crying, and Santa cute-bullying him into not being angry with him (to be fair, that would totally work on me). Anyway, it goes around in circles for 9 episodes, and as we see in the Synopsis, we know it's building up to Cake leaving for a few years.

Eiw is the uke-est uke that ever uke'ed. He has no agency, is incapable of anything - there's even a scene where he has to run in PE class, and he literally only gets in three paces before the effort makes him collapse in a coma and he has to be hospitalized. He is wholly dependent on Cake in every conceivable way. Cake has a girlfriend, and this is endlessly painful to Eiw and so we watch him cry almost non-stop for the first 9 episodes.

So when Cake leaves, we're hoping to see Eiw blossom, become independent, and then when Cake returns, it's Cake who has to fit himself into Eiw's new life.

But nope, they just pick up right where they left off. There's no girfriend to make Cake cry, so instead, something randomly tragic happens, and the entirety of the last two episodes involves Eiw crying.

There is no point to this series. It's not about coping with loss, it's not about love, it's not about individual growth or coming of age. It's just Earth crying porn. The only purpose of anything is to make Earth cry. A man in his mid 20s, cast an adolescent who whine-cries for fourteen episodes.

And it's strictly G-rated, even when they're college grads. It's definitely a BL, but a very bromancy one - nearly chaste. They hug a lot, but that about it. A few sniff-kisses and one peck on the lips.

The acting is good, especially Santa, who is extremely talented and first-rate leading-man hunk material. And Earth has definitely mastered wailing and crying.

This is a qualiy production, but at the end of it I just don't understand what the point of it was, and I doubt I'll remember any of it in a month. Except for a scene where a doctor says something so outrageous that I burst out laughing. Even if you think this is the best series ever made, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. There's also the most horrendously-timed move made on a girl that I've ever seen. Another LOL moment.

Story: Meh. I'll give it a 4.5. It was pointless, but coherent, and kept all the characters consistent. Maybe too consisent.
Acting: 8.5 - quite good all around. Santa is the clear standout, but Prem Warat surprised me with his depth - he's so much more substantial here than he is as a stereotypical uke.
Music: I don't remember any of it, so not bad or outstanding.
Rewatch value: none. I would never rewatch this, and Santa doesn' really show us any of his hot body, so there's no shower scene to play on an endless loop.
Overall: 6.5. OK, but dull, repetitive, and forgettable. I don't think I would recommend binging it, or its repetitiveness will really stand out. If you're an Earth fan, you may like it. If you hate Earth, you'll definitely like it because he's suffering and crying for the entirety of the series.

Leia Mais

Pleasant and realistic, but a bit dull

The characters in this are well-drawn and not stock stereotypes. Han Ji Yu is a foodie/functional alcoholic who meets uptight chef Park Ki Hoon, who has an irrational hatred of alcohol. Their initial reaction to each other is quite finny and entertaining without being OTT. Han Ji Yu's passion for food and his unguarded pleasure it it charms Park Ki Hoon, who slowly opens up to him, and it's cute.

The problem is that it doesn't really go anywhere and it's barely a romance. Until KBL can get over it's homophobia it's never going to hit the high notes in Thai or Taiwanese BL - the dead fish kisses and the way they manage to keep a meter of space between their bodies even during intimacy makes it, well, not intimate. I think it's implied they had sex in the finale, but it's really unclear - they might have just kissed, or maybe they were just tired and rested with their faces barely touching, although it looked like a diffficult yoga pose more than resting.

Anyway, you won't resent the series for the time you invested in it, but you probably won't remember anything but the first episode a month after watching it.

Leia Mais

It's cute but repetitive

When this started, I loved it - the characters are interesting, with Aoki having cute freakouts and Ida being this sexy clueless overserious guy, and a series of misunderstandings cause them to accidentally draw together, and not the usual way where one trips and the other catches him and they stare at each other until they turn gay.

But then it bogs down into an endless cycle of very similar breakdowns in communication that reduces the story to running in circles to prevent the couple from getting together. The problem is that the crises are all so similar that I lost all sympathy for Aoki and wanted Ida to find someone less mentally unstable, and frankly stopped caring about whether or not they'd end up together. Either way would have been equally fine to me. I was actually more invested in the straight couple, which at least had a progression in their relationship.

TBH, the avoidance of affection starts to feel homophobic - I realize this is aimed at younger audiences, but similar stories with a straight pair don't have the same pathological aversion to depicting romantic interaction.

The quality of the production is high, the dialogue is cute, the acting is excellent, and the music is fine, if not particularly notable. I can't imagine rewatching any of it, since it already feels like I watched the same episode ten times. I'd recommend it if you like cuteness, but not if you think romance should be more than holding hands for about 10 seconds.

Story: 6 - too repetitive, although the starting premise is clever and the first few episodes are really engaging.
Acting: 9 - very good all around.
Music: 7 - it's appropriate and never annoying, but there's nothing extraordinary about it.
Rewatch: 5 - I doubt I'd rewatch it, although I might want to go back and stare at Ida and listen to him speak.
Overall: 7.5 - the "suggested" rating is lower, but I don't think it deserves less than a "C". It was cute and well-done, but it's just not memorable and I'll likely forget about it fairly quickly.

Leia Mais

Complete waste of time

This actually started out fairly well, despite the usual BL setting - it had a bit more grit, like people actually took public transportation instead of driving an obscene luxury car. It did a decent job of portraying unrequited longing.

But then a confession happened and the whole thing fell to pieces. There is nothing lazier and less satifying to watch than a story based on implausible misunderstanding. This silliness took me out of the slice-of-like atmosphere that had been set up and plopped me into a terribly written and edited slice of Swiss cheese. Once the manufactured drama is resolved, we skip around for 100 days into a relationship totally devoid of any hint of romantic chemistry or romance at all, other than a 100-day anniversary dinner which was going to go wrong in a totally predictable way.

The acting is uneven. Kim In Sung has some charm as Han Joon, but Zuho... well, he tried.

This would have worked much better if it weren't a BL - Han Joon could still be in love with Yoo Jae, but it would have been interesting if it really were unrequited love - but given Yoo Jae's family issues, he might have really needed Han Joon and found a way to make their friendship work - because they did have decent friend chemistry.

The first 4 eps were good, the next two got me a bit worried, and the final two were a real chore to get through. I really can't recomment this - it's forgetable and I doubt I'll even remember it in a few months, except for the lingering feeling of frustration.

Leia Mais

Definitely the worst BL I've ever seen, and that's saying something.

There is almost nothing positive to say about this, other than that there are good-looking guys in it.

It's fine to have a drama with comedic elements, but when you intersperse cruelty and phyical and emotional torture with slapstick ladyboy comedy with truly oppressive sound effects, the tonal dissonance is intensely irritating.

As for the drama, it's so overwrought and melodramatic, with really bleak homophobia and a villainous and irredeemable grandfather (who is of course totally forgiven at the end because he just gives up) and nothing pleasant to balance it. I'm getting tired of being lectured by badly written BLs about how love isn't about gender, blah blah blah. The purpose of a drama is to SHOW us this, not have preachy characters rant on and on about what is already obvious to and accepted by the entire audience or we wouldn't be suffering through this to begin with.

The NC-17 scene is so out of nowhere and strange that I had a hard time understanding what I was looking at.

There are other terrible BLs, but this is the first one where I didn't enjoy anything about it at all.

If you're a Gameplay fan, do not watch this if you want to remain a Gameplay fan. For everyone else, just do not watch this. It's terrible and there's no payoff. I didn't think this group could make anything worse than Love With Benefits, but they succeeded, if for no other reason that LWB was shorter.

Leia Mais

Lovely short series

This is very well-written, acted, and produced - it's very visual and takes full advantage of the medium to tell the story with real economy of force.

The story is non-linear, but easy to follow. The writing and acting manages to effectively convey through small details how the boys feel about each other, and the dynamic of their relationship. The ending was perfect for their story.

The acting is understated, but the tension is there when it needs to be. There is a coffee metaphor, but it's used effectively and we aren't beaten over the head with it.

I would recommend this - but if you watch it, don't try to judge it as you would a 12 hour-long episode series. It's a completely different type of story told in a much more visual way.

Leia Mais

Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

There are a lot of good things about this - the acting is solid, especially from Hsiao Hung, who throws himself 110% into the role. His character can be a little OTT, but he pulls it off, and he has really good comic timing.

The story and writing are not the strongest aspect of this - it leans way, way too heavily on misunderstanding, which is a particular crutch of Asian drama. Shang Zhou's emotional constipation is well-supported, and it's clear his character was formed by an unloving mother, so I did buy that, but it's carried too far - there is a situation in particular that could have been solved by a "yes" or even a subtle nod of his head, and Shun Yu's misunderstanding of the situation is less explainable and comes off as forced drama.

This works well as a comedy, but the problem is that it veers to heavily into drama, which is tonally dissonant and none of the drama is sufficiently supported.

What might have worked better is to have made the mother a more central villain, and made her the obstacle that had to be overcome, rather than really stupid misunderstandings. That would aslo have made Shun Yu's "boss moment" in the final confrontation with her much more satisfying. It was very well-acted, and it was quite a moment to see him finally become confident in love, but if there had been more of a development arc to that point it would have had a larger payoff.

The interaction between the two as a couple at the end was some of the best I've ever seen in a BL, with both of them acting like men, and not shying away from affection, There's no sex, but the way they hug and touch each other is uninhibited and convincing.

I really hope to see Hsiao Hung again - he's really talented, not to mention beautiful and hot. That skin is like porcelain.

Anyway, there is a lot of frustration in the second half, but the payoff in the finale is quite good, so I can recommend this, although there are some parts you might want to ff through.

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